


Please Remember

by txorakeriak



Category: Pirates of the Caribbean (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Drama, Established Relationship, Fluff and Angst, Heavy Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-06-15
Updated: 2006-06-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:33:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27602152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/txorakeriak/pseuds/txorakeriak
Summary: "Sometimes, time just slips away, just like that. Without a warning, everything is over, and you're left with nothing but the memory of yesterday."
Relationships: Gillette/James Norrington
Kudos: 1





	Please Remember

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt: "The fool's hope has failed."

Sometimes, time just slips away, just like that. Without a warning, everything is over, and you're left with nothing but the memory of yesterday. 

Andrew Gillette hadn't known the feeling before or expected ever to know it, but since he had opened the letter, he had thought of nothing else.

In the letter, the Admiralty in London ordered him to return to England the following week. He would finally make captain, just like he had always wished, and if that shouldn't already make him happy, he was to command one of the finest ships of the British fleet. A new life.

However, there was his old life, the life he had become accustomed to so easily because it was better than anything he could have imagined. Everything he needed, everything he cherished, was here, right in front of his eyes. Blue skies, wide opens, palm trees, and, most important of all, James Norrington. The man he had come to love, the man who loved him back. 

The thought put a weak, sad smile on his face. It was not fair. He had expected the letter to come, but he had wished it wouldn't come too soon. He had always been eager to answer the call of duty, but now he wished he hadn't heard it. The fool's hope had failed.

When the door to his quarters opened, he was too lost in thoughts to notice. He didn't even realize there was someone in the room with him until he felt a warm hand on his shoulder. Without having to turn around, he knew whose it was, for there was only one person in the world who could touch him like that and make his heart beat faster by simply being there. 

_I was always there for you,_ he thought, melancholy spreading inside him. _And you were always there for me._

The hand squeezed his shoulder lightly. "Andrew?" He would never have thought that this voice, so velvety-deep and rich, like a caress, could make him cry one day. Now, his eyes were filling with tears and he finally turned around. 

The look on the other man's face turned from sympathy and affection to honest distress. "Andrew? What ever is the matter?" James Norrington took a chair and moved it close to Gillette's to sit down beside him. 

Gillette suddenly felt miserable and embarrassed and just this once in his life wished Norrington wasn't there. He couldn't look at him now or he would break apart.

The hand returned to his shoulder, caressing him with soft, slow moves, and Norrington was looking at him, his worry increasing with every minute Gillette kept silent. Finally, he asked again, "Andrew? Please, tell me!" 

It was almost a plea. Gillette couldn't hold back anymore. With a stifled cry, he turned around and collapsed against Norrington, sobbing quietly against his chest. He would ruin Norrington's uniform, but he couldn't stop. He just couldn't stop. 

Norrington put an arm around him, holding him close, while his other hand was in Gillette's hair, softly stroking and patting him. He didn't say anything else.

Suddenly, Gillette pulled away from him, covering his face with his hands; a ridiculous attempt to hide his tears. "I'm sorry, James. I should not have let myself go like that." 

"Nonsense, Andrew," Norrington reassured him and immediately bit his lip at the stupid words, but Gillette hadn't even heard them. 

"I received orders to return to England," he said, putting the letter on the table and staring at it. The words mingled in front of his wet eyes.

"No!" Norrington's voice showed shock and sadness, but there was blind determination in it as well. As if by one simple word, Norrington could change everything. As if he could stand up against the Admiralty for a matter of his heart.

"I must leave Port Royal next week. They sent a ship for me." Gillette didn't even know why he continued talking when it was so much easier to just hand Norrington the letter.

Norrington got up from the chair and walked around Gillette's to face him. It only took an instant until Gillette fell into Norrington's arms. For this moment, holding each other close seemed more intimate and much better to them than kissing or even making love. They were clinging to each other like shipwrecked sailors during a storm, their love the piece of driftwood that kept them alive. 

Gillette was the first to soften his grip and finally pull back a little. "I've been thinking, James," he said, looking deep into Norrington's grief-stricken eyes. "I know there is no sadder word to say than 'goodbye', but we shouldn't make it worse than it is."

Gillette spoke quietly and carefully pondered every word before he continued, "I've never known a moment of sorrow for all the time we've been together, and maybe this is the reason why I need to go now. I never truly deserved the luck to know you, you know." 

He smiled weakly at Norrington, and for an instant, the commodore took a breath to protest, but Gillette silenced him with a slow, tender kiss. 

"Maybe I have to make up for Fate's wrong kindness now," he continued, "maybe I'm punished with English weather, unwanted social duties and press-gangs because I committed the crime of becoming a part of your life." 

His hand slowly moved over Norrington's arm and his gaze was affectionate and considerably proud. "But I have something special to take with me, something nobody can ever take away from me." 

He paused and for a while, he was just leaning against the other man, taking in his warmth. When he continued speaking, his voice was soft and quiet. "I have the memories of you and me, of a time when time was ours and we didn't care about anything. Do you remember when we sailed to that distant island and spent almost a week there with barely anything to eat and a sunburn you could have fried eggs on?"

Norrington smiled despite his sadness. "How could I ever forget that? You were always looking for a cave, and I didn't know where you got the idea from that there had to be one - and when we finally found it, you acted as if you had known it all along, so smug and complacent, and I couldn't help smiling--" He paused for an instant, looking at his lover. "You were so happy that day. And I was so happy seeing you happy."

Gillette nodded. "I was happy because I had you. And a little because I _knew_ the cave was there and you didn't want to believe me!" He grinned. 

"And speaking of happy memories..." With a quick move, he poked Norrington's side and for what might have been the last time enjoyed the fact that he was so ticklish that it was hard to believe. When Norrington winced back and glared half-heartedly at him, all Gillette could do was laugh out loud, as if his sadness from before were forgotten entirely, as if it would go on like this forever. It was such a relief, such an incredible relief. 

Norrington forgave Gillette immediately and pulled him into another warm embrace. "You are a devil," he said. "You haven't changed a bit since that evening here in Port Royal, when you had that bet going on with Groves about who could hold his drink better. Do you remember that?"

Gillette laughed. "Oh yes, that I do. The poor lad didn't even notice that I had put rum in his ale. But that wasn't even the best part! Do you remember him quoting from _Romeo and Juliet_ on the Governor's desk? And dancing with his wig?"

The quick snort that escaped Norrington's lips and the amused look on his face answered the question quite sufficiently. "But Groves made you pay for that, if I remember correctly," he said, grinning mischievously. "I'll never forget how you swayed around the Fort and slurred strange things at me just because he had put a considerable dose of pocheen into your morning coffee."

Gillette blushed slightly, but he couldn't even stop laughing. "Yes, that wasn't very kind of him."

"I think he was very kind to me when he did it," Norrington argued, smiling."I bet you wouldn't have kissed me otherwise."

"Right after delivering an important and pompous letter from Nassau, indeed," Gillette admitted. It had been quite a hilarious situation at the time. 

"Oh, I never told you about that letter, did I? About its contents? The Admiralty in Nassau congratulated me for 'having led my men so efficiently through good and bad times'. They couldn't have chosen a better moment to make me feel utterly embarrassed." Norrington winked at him.

"But you deserved their compliments," Gillette insisted, stealing another quick kiss. 

Norrington's hand stroked lazily over Gillette's hair. "All I wish I deserved is you. I wish--" He swallowed thickly. "I wish I deserved to keep you."

Gillette blushed, a wave of affection and love washing over him at Norrington's words and the warm closeness of their bodies. "Don't say that," he muttered, "you were made for something better than--"

Norrington interrupted him. They had gone through that discussion many times before, and he almost laughed out loud at the fact that even when they were so close to being parted, they couldn't escape it. 

"What better is there than someone to love and to be loved in return," he asked, hoping Gillette would finally understand. "What better is there than someone who loves you no matter what mistakes you make, no matter what defects you have?" He pulled his lover closer and pressed a kiss on his forehead. "No dream seemed out of reach when I was with you." 

Norrington let out a sigh, sadness taking him again. "You will remember, won't you? You will remember how we took each day and made it shine?"

"I won't forget," Gillette assured him with a smile. "I will never forget you. And there's only one thing I'll ask of you when I leave next week." 

Norrington swallowed down the lump in his throat and forced himself to smile back at Gillette for the sake of their memories. "And what is that?"

"Please remember me as well."

Norrington pulled Gillette close to him again and quickly wiped away a tear that was running down his cheek before Gillette could see it. 

"Nothing can stop me, my love. Nothing in the whole world."


End file.
